Insect robot developed with flapping wings but not a leash

RoboFly, the first wireless insect-sized flying robot, is slightly heavier than a toothpick.

The robot called 'RoboFly' with independent flaps used a tiny onboard circuit that converts the laser energy into enough electricity to operate its wings, according to a news release of the university on Tuesday.

To make RoboFly wireless, the engineers designed a flexible circuit (yellow) with a boost converter (copper coil and black boxes at left) that boosts the seven volts coming from the photovoltaic cell into the 240 volts needed for flight.

The engineers said the engineering challenge was the flapping since wing flapping was a power-hungry process, and both the power source and the controller that directs the wings were too big and bulky to ride aboard a tiny robot.

So they designed a circuit that boosted the seven volts coming out of the photovoltaic cell up to the 240 volts needed for flight.

'To make the wings flap forward swiftly, it sends a series of pulses in rapid succession and then slows the pulsing down as you get near the top of the wave.

To power RoboFly the engineers pointed an invisible laser beam (shown here in red laser) at a photovoltaic cell, which is attached above the robot and converts the laser light into electricity.